China Angers Angola! Anti-Chinese Rage Spreads Africa, Bloody Revenge Attacks on Citizens!

China angers Angola. Riots, looting, and arrests spread widely. Anti-Chinese sentiment spreads across Africa. Chinese citizens targeted in bloody revenge attacks. China's Great Recession emerges. Fake GDP. Weak economy. But military spending keeps rising. The people are abandoned and struggling to survive. Tens of millions of tons of fruit rot in orchards. The dream of getting rich. Through farming turns into a nightmare. Multiple Iranian warships sunk. 30 massive oil storage tanks destroyed. China's oil supply cut off. The nightmare has just begun. A striking irony. The photo contrast between Trump and Xi Jinping's shoes. Welcome to today's episode of Decoding China. Everything you need to understand the latest developments is right here. China angers Angola. Riots, looting, and arrests spread widely. Anti-Chinese sentiment spreads across Africa. Chinese citizens targeted in bloody revenge attacks. Recently, a short video spread rapidly across social media in Angola. In the footage, a young Angolan man is seen arguing fiercely with a Chinese employer over a wage deduction of 5,000 kwanza, about 5.5 US dollars, because a worker accidentally damaged a part during work. Suddenly, the Chinese employer raises his hand and slaps the worker in the face in front of several people. The incident took place at a car repair shop inside a commercial complex run by Chinese businesses. What started as an argument quickly escalated into a physical confrontation. Within days, the clip had been viewed millions of times and circulated widely across Africa, reigniting debates over how Chinese businesses operate on the continent. Many observers said the incident was not simply a personal conflict, but reflected long-standing tensions between Chinese companies and local workers. On social media, some users criticized what they described as a harsh and authoritarian management style used by certain Chinese employers, while others called for stronger protection of workers' rights. Local labor unions soon organized small demonstrations demanding an investigation and accountability. Amid rising public anger, Angolan authorities began tightening immigration enforcement. Starting in late January 2026, immigration officers launched a series of crackdowns Several Chinese nationals were detained. In early February, the Chinese embassy in Angola issued an alert warning that Angolan immigration authorities were intensifying operations against illegal immigration. Some Chinese citizens had already been fined, detained or deported for overstaying visas, lacking work permits or abusing work visas. The embassy emphasized that visa-free entry only applies to tourism and cannot be converted into a work permit. Angola, located in southwestern Africa, has maintained close economic ties with China for more than two decades. Since the early 2000s, China has become one of Angola's largest trading partners. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese companies have participated in major infrastructure projects including roads, railways and port upgrades. However, many Angolans argue that some Chinese businesses pay low wages and impose harsh working conditions, leading to frequent labor disputes and growing resentment. Tensions intensified further on February 8, when Angola's Criminal Investigation Service SIC in Malanga province arrested Wang Yunfen, a 68-year-old Chinese national, on charges of kidnapping and torturing an Angolan employee in 2022. The victim reportedly suffered long-term injuries including loss of smell and taste, severe infections and paralysis of the lower limbs. Under Angolan law, the charges could carry a 20 to 24-year prison sentence. Wang Yunfen owns Lucky Man Farm, a vast agricultural estate covering nearly 500,000 acres, widely considered one of the largest Chinese-owned farms in Africa. Public resentment toward Chinese businesses in Angola had already been building. As early as July 2025, large-scale riots erupted across the country, with many attacks specifically targeting Chinese-owned shops and businesses. Reports indicate that at least 91 businesses were damaged, with Chinese retail chains suffering the worst losses. Seven major Chinese retail brands were looted, and 72 sales outlets belonging to brands such as AOA were directly targeted. Videos circulating online showed crowds smashing windows, breaking locks, and clearing store shelves within minutes. An even more serious incident occurred in the early hours of July 31, when six armed robbers attacked a Chinese company compound. The attackers cut through an electric fence, climbed over the wall, and held more than 10 local workers and three security guards hostage, while forcing several Chinese nationals into a room and robbing them. When rescue teams arrived and fired warning shots, the robbers fled. After the riots, more than 100 Chinese-owned businesses were either damaged or forced to close, and thousands of Chinese nationals left Angola, with around 5,000 evacuating during August alone. Similar tensions have appeared in other African countries. On February 19, in the Kasangulu area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Chinese supervisor at a quarry was accused of beating a local worker with an iron rod during a labor dispute, causing severe head injuries that required hospitalization. The Chinese national involved was later detained by Congolese security forces. In Ethiopia, wildcat strikes also targeted Chinese companies because of low wages and strict management practices. In the Ethiopian textile sector, entry-level workers earn only about US$26 per month, far below wages in many Asian manufacturing countries. Workers complain that strict performance systems and frequent wage deductions leave them unable to cover basic living costs. The mining sector has generated even more serious accusations. In Zimbabwe, workers have reported being threatened with guns and subjected to frequent verbal abuse. A Voice of America report in 2024 highlighted allegations that some Chinese mining companies impose long working hours, low pay, unsafe conditions, and environmental pollution. At the same time, China's investment in Africa is now declining. Columnist James Gorey wrote in the Epoch Times that in certain sectors, including development finance and energy lending, Chinese investment in Africa has fallen by as much as 85% from its peak. According to Gorey, the reason may lie less in Africa itself and more in China's domestic economic situation. The Chinese economy is facing mounting pressure, including a prolonged real estate downturn, heavy local government debt, slowing GDP growth, and weak domestic consumption. When capital becomes tied up at home, approval for large overseas projects becomes increasingly difficult, especially in politically complex or financially risky environments. He argues that the Chinese Communist Party's ambition for global expansion is now constrained by domestic economic realities. When internal economic weaknesses coexist with excessive overseas expansion, the result can become a dangerous and unstable combination. China's Great Recession emerges, fake GDP, weak economy, but military spending keeps rising. The people are abandoned and struggling to survive. Early this month, at the Chinese Communist Party's National People's Congress, Premier Li Cheng set China's economic growth target for 2026 at 4.5 to 5%, lower than earlier expectations. Several provinces had already quietly lowered their own growth targets at the beginning of the year. Analysts say the figure is largely political. Real economic indicators, from electricity consumption and freight transport to PMI data, are showing clear signs of weakening. Political commentator Chen Pekong argues that since Xi Jinping came to power, China's economy has shifted from a period of high-speed growth to a prolonged slowdown. The old model driven by investment and exports is losing effectiveness, while the real estate sector, once accounting for nearly 30% of the economy, has collapsed, leaving unfinished projects, massive debt, and significant losses in household wealth. External shocks have further worsened the situation. For years, Venezuela and Iran supplied China with discounted oil, helping maintain low manufacturing costs. But instability in both countries has disrupted that supply. China now depends on imported oil for more than 76% of its consumption. Rising energy costs are directly squeezing the economy's ability to recover. At the same time, the U.S.-China trade conflict continues to exert long-term pressure. Washington's tariffs, technology restrictions, and efforts to restructure global supply chains have weakened China's export-driven growth model. Although China recorded a record trade surplus in 2025, it was largely driven by low-end products and re-exports, while many high-tech manufacturing sectors are gradually moving out of China. Against this backdrop of economic slowdown, Beijing's continued increase in military spending has drawn global attention. Over the past several years, China's defense budget has risen steadily at around 7.2% annually. This year, the increase dropped slightly to 7%, but it still exceeds GDP growth. American economist Davy J. Wang said this reveals Beijing's priorities. Even as economic growth slows, defense spending continues to outpace the economy. This reflects a strategy that places regime stability and military power above economic recovery. International think tanks also believe China's official defense budget significantly understates the real figure. According to estimates by CRI, China's actual military spending in 2024 may have reached 474 billion U.S. dollars, roughly double the officially reported 232 billion. The American Enterprise Institute suggests the real number could be even higher, possibly around 700 billion U.S. dollars. The discrepancy largely stems from how spending is categorized. China excludes many major expenses from its official defense budget, including weapons research and development, civil-military integration programs, and numerous high-technology initiatives. Programs such as upgrades to the stealth J-20 fighter, production of the Y-20 transport aircraft, development of the carrier-based J-35 fighter, deployment of Z-20 helicopters, and research into sixth-generation fighter aircraft require enormous funding. Yet these expenditures are often distributed across the budgets of state-owned defense companies, national research funds, or science and technology programs. China's strategy of military-civil fusion also channels large investments into sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and aerospace. These expenditures rarely appear in the official defense budget, but directly enhance military capabilities. As a result, the true scale of China's military spending is difficult to determine. Analysts say dispersing expenditures across multiple budget categories makes the military budget appear smaller than it actually is. The contrast becomes clearer when examining military welfare systems. China has roughly 57 million veterans, the largest group in the world, but most receive only a one-time payment or job placement, with limited long-term support. Many rural veterans lack stable health care coverage. The United States, by contrast, provides lifelong benefits for veterans, including health care, education, disability compensation, housing assistance, and other programs. The U.S. government operates hundreds of medical centers and clinics dedicated to veterans, providing support throughout their lives. Meanwhile, China's military has also been shaken by internal purges. Over the past decade, more than half of the senior leadership positions in the People's Liberation Army have been replaced. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, at least 36 generals and lieutenant generals have been purged since 2022, while dozens of other officers have disappeared from the system. Even officers previously considered close to Xi Jinping, such as Zhang Yuqia, have not been immune to the purges. A military subjected to continuous purges struggles to maintain stability in its command structure. When fear becomes the dominant incentive within the system, coordination and combat readiness inevitably suffer. Many international analysts say China's current trajectory resembles the late stages of the Soviet Union, a state with formidable military power, a large defense industry, and a massive army, yet burdened by a weakening economy, declining consumption, and falling living standards. As unemployment rises and economic hardship spreads among the population, the Chinese Communist Party risks following the same path once taken by the Soviet Union, a path that ultimately led to the collapse of the entire political and economic system. Tens of millions of tons of fruit rot in orchards. The dream of getting rich through farming turns into a nightmare. China's fruit industry is facing a severe oversupply crisis. Despite sharp price drops, farmers and traders say fruit is still extremely difficult to sell. From wholesale markets to roadside stalls, almost every type of fruit is struggling to find buyers. Peers are rotting right in the fields, turning into fertilizer. Saying that relying on our own hands means we won't starve. That's the biggest lie we farmers tell ourselves. The remark from a pear grower spread quickly on Chinese social media, reflecting the despair many farmers now feel as harvest season turns into a financial disaster. In many fruit-growing regions, truckloads of oranges, apples, watermelons, and pears are piling up in orchards. With no buyers, growers are often forced to dump the fruit directly on the ground, letting it rot and decompose. Many farmers say they waited an entire year for the harvest, hoping that March would bring a chance to recover their losses. Instead, the market has almost completely stalled. Traders say the problem is not limited to one or two fruit varieties. The entire market has slowed sharply. Prices for strawberries, bananas, oranges, apples, and many other fruits have all fallen significantly. In some places, trucks are being sent straight to dumping sites because sellers cannot find anyone willing to buy. The price of strawberries has collapsed. Truck after truck is being brought here and dumped. It's not just strawberries. Almost all fruit is crashing and can't be sold. This year, many people in the fruit business may suffer heavy losses, one trader said. At the same time, production costs for farmers continue to rise. One orange grower explained that maintaining 500 mature fruit trees costs more than 30,000 yuan per year, about 4,100 U.S. dollars. Until the fruit is actually sold, farmers constantly face the risk of losing their entire investment. Many farmers also point out the striking gap between the labor they put in and the income they receive. A truck carrying 66,000 jin of navel oranges may not even generate enough revenue to buy two smartphones. Meanwhile, the costs of fertilizer, pesticides, labor, and transportation keep increasing year after year. Data from wholesale markets in southern China also show fruit prices falling rapidly. In early December 2025, imported cherries transported by sea were selling for about 47.5 yuan per kilogram. By January 10, 2026, the price had dropped to around 26.5 yuan per kilogram, a decline of roughly 44 percent. Domestic fruit prices have fallen even more sharply. Sugar tangerines are now selling for about 1.8 yuan per jin, nearly 40 percent lower than the same period last year. In some grape-growing regions, farm gate prices have dropped to around 0.5 yuan per jin, so low that some farmers say it is not even worth harvesting because the revenue cannot cover labor costs. Many people originally expected the Lunar New Year holiday to trigger a surge in consumer demand. Instead, the opposite has happened. Vendors in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities say the market remains sluggish even after the holiday. Not only fruit but even vegetable prices have begun to decline. Some observers believe the downturn in China's economy is a key factor behind the weakening demand. Household incomes for many families are falling, while job security is becoming increasingly uncertain. Under these conditions, consumers are cutting back on non-essential spending. Traders say the difficulty of doing business has become a nationwide phenomenon. Everywhere you go, people say business is bad. Now if someone shows even the slightest intention to buy, the seller has to hold on to them tightly. Because customers have become extremely rare, one fruit vendor said. Multiple Iranian warships sunk. 30 massive oil storage tanks destroyed. China's oil supply cut off. The nightmare has just begun. Recently, explosions were reported near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC naval base in Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz. Videos posted online showed an Iranian warship burning in the harbor after being struck. Satellite imagery indicates that U.S. and Allied forces targeted Iranian naval assets around the port. Bandar Abbas sits beside the Strait of Hormuz, a corridor carrying about 20% of the world's seaborne oil. Battlefield reports say more than 40 Iranian vessels, including missile boats and IRGC speedboats, have been destroyed or disabled. With much of its fleet knocked out, Tehran's threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz has sharply weakened. The naval strikes were followed by Israeli airstrikes inside Iran, targeting energy infrastructure and military logistics. Around 30 large oil storage tanks were hit, and several refineries and fuel depots caught fire. The escalation quickly sent shockwaves through global energy markets. The fighting occurred near the Strait of Hormuz, a route responsible for roughly one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil transport. Markets reacted immediately. Brent crude surged nearly 25%, reaching about 119 U.S. dollars per barrel, the largest single-day increase since the early stage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Supply disruptions forced several oil-producing countries to adjust production. Iraq sharply reduced output from its southern oil fields due to storage limits. Kuwait declared force majeure. And Qatar, one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, temporarily suspended part of its export operations. In China, the energy shock began appearing almost immediately in domestic markets. Fuel prices were raised sharply, marking the largest increase in four years. News of the increase triggered a rush to gas stations. Long lines of vehicles formed outside stations from major cities to rural towns. Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed stations packed with drivers waiting to refuel. One widely shared comment captured the mood. When international prices fall, it has nothing to do with me. The phrase reflected long-standing frustration with the country's fuel pricing system. Yet Beijing's challenge goes far beyond rising gasoline prices. The deeper issue lies in China's energy security structure. Roughly 45% of China's imported oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. That means around 9 million barrels of crude oil must travel through this narrow corridor every day before reaching Chinese ports. If the route were disrupted, even briefly, China's industrial system would face enormous pressure. Manufacturing centers along the eastern coast and factories in the interior would be forced to slow production. Supply chains for plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and other chemical products would also suffer cascading disruptions. For years, China has tried to reduce this risk by building an energy supply network with countries under Western sanctions, including Venezuela, Iran, and Russia. These sources often provide discounted oil and allow transactions outside Western-dominated financial systems. The arrangement became one of the pillars of Beijing's long-term energy strategy. When Iran falls into deeper instability, one of those three pillars weakens. That would not only threaten China's access to discounted oil, but also undermine its broader geopolitical strategy in the Middle East. China has invested heavily in Iran for years. The two countries signed a strategic cooperation agreement reportedly worth about 400 billion U.S. dollars. The projects included telecommunications infrastructure, 5G networks, surveillance systems, ports, and railway construction. They were designed to turn Iran into a major node in China's Belt and Road network across the Middle East. If Iran's political structure shifts dramatically, many of those investments could lose their strategic value. That would mean Beijing losing one of its most important footholds in the region. Another detail drawing attention is the reaction of ordinary Iranians. In several videos circulating online, some residents were seen celebrating in the streets as strikes hit government targets. The scenes highlight a reality many authoritarian systems attempt to conceal. A regime can appear powerful from the outside, yet its social foundation may be far more fragile than it seems. When external pressure rises and internal fractures begin to surface, political upheaval can sometimes arrive far faster than anyone expects. A striking irony, the photo contrast between Trump and Xi Jinping's shoes. A recent post on social media by Michelle Maxwell, a conservative political figure in the state of Virginia, quickly drew widespread attention. Within a short time, the post received more than 5.3 million views and over 40,000 likes. The story centered on a surprisingly ordinary detail. Donald Trump's shoes. In her post, Maxwell described a daily habit that she believes reveals something about the character of the US president. Maxwell wrote, If I told you that this billionaire president of the United States does one thing every single morning and refuses to let anyone help him, it's something his father taught him more than 60 years ago, and he has never stopped doing it. The reason behind it will show you what real character looks like. According to Maxwell, that habit is polishing his own shoes every morning. She explained that Trump began doing this as a child. His father taught him that a man should take care of the simplest things himself, because it builds discipline and reminds a person never to forget where he came from. Over the decades, Trump's status changed dramatically. Yet, Maxwell wrote, the habit remained unchanged. White House staff members reportedly offered many times to polish his shoes for him, but Trump always refused. He would say that his father taught him that when a person begins to believe he is too important to do simple things for himself, that is when character begins to erode. Some staff members recalled that before important meetings or presidential briefings, Trump would sit down with shoe polish and a brush, carefully shining his dress shoes before starting the day's work. Maxwell noted that for more than 60 years, the habit continued quietly. There were no cameras, no praise, and very few people even knew about it. In her words, it was simply a son keeping a promise to his father. Meanwhile, a separate story involving Xi Jinping also drew attention on social media. About 20 days ago, a photograph taken in 2014 in New Delhi, India, resurfaced online. The image was captured after Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liwan visited the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi. In the photo, an aide kneels down to tie Xi Jinping's shoelaces, while Peng Liwan stands beside him. The open side of the man's suit jacket reveals a handgun, suggesting he was likely a member of Xi's personal security detail. What many observers noticed was that Xi Jinping appeared relaxed and smiling in the image. A similar incident also drew public attention in December 2025, when Xi Jinping and Peng Liwan welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron in Beijing. A video circulating online showed that while the two leaders were waiting, a staff member quickly approached Xi Jinping and bent down to adjust his shoes. From the thinning hair visible on the back of the man's head, it appeared that the staff member was not young. Yet the gesture, resembling that of a servant, did not seem to make Xi uncomfortable. Because these two incidents occurred more than a decade apart, some observers believe that such scenes may not be uncommon in the power environment surrounding China's leadership. For many online commentators, the contrast between the two stories became widely discussed. One image emphasized personal discipline, while the other showed subordinates attending to even the smallest personal details of a leader. Some observers argued that this contrast highlights a broader contradiction within systems that once claimed the goal of eliminating exploitation and privilege, yet in practice developed clear hierarchies of privilege within the ruling structure. Former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev once reportedly told his brother a remark that has often been quoted, In 1991, Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn also argued that ruling elites within such systems rarely give up the privileges they accumulated over decades. However, history has also shown that systems built on concentrated power and entrenched privilege can ultimately face profound change when society begins to awaken. In 1991, history witnessed such an outcome. A system that began with violence and propaganda, sustained by authoritarian control, coercion, and privilege, was ultimately abandoned by the very people it claimed to represent. We'd love to hear your perspective. Leave a comment below and share your thoughts. If you found this video helpful, please share it with your friends. Your support keeps us going and inspires us to deliver even better content. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more in-depth analysis from Decoding China. Thank you for watching!